The Attack of the Furious Squelch Monster!
by Tobi Tortue
Summary: Co-written with anja-chan and SlvrSoleAlchmst1. Rey finds a mysterious orb, and together with Shinn try to figure out what the heck is going on. mild shounen-ai content


_This story was written in renga style by myself, anja-chan, and SlvrSoleAlchmst1, in that order (although I also wrote the ending). I did not mark the spaces where each author took over the writing, but if anyone is curious, feel free to PM me. The prompts for this story was Gundam SEED, aliens, and "I found the strangest thing in my pocket." Two more stories with these same prompts exist, posted under my co-authors' accounts. Please enjoy!_

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**WARNING**: This story contains very mild implied homosexuality.

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**The Attack of the Furious Squelch Monster!**

"I found the strangest thing in my pocket…." Rey trailed off as he pulled the pocket of his ZAFT pants inside out. He didn't notice Shinn's questioning look until the Impulse pilot brushed his shoulder.

Rey opened his hand and there, in the center of his palm, was a small, glowing orb.

"What is it?" Shinn asked, reaching for the object. The orb levitated from Rey's palm, keeping just out of reach.

Both pilots were shocked.

"I honestly have no idea." Rey answered rather unnecessarily, moving his hand from side-to-side, watching the luminescent orb float just above it.

Could it be some kind of message or signal from Gil? It wasn't likely. Even Gilbert Durandal, with all of his resources and intelligence, couldn't come up with a levitating orb like this. When Rey stared at it, all he saw was light. Yet when he had pulled it from his pocket, it had felt like a small sphere of cool glass.

"Where did you get it?" Shinn asked with the tone of an annoying child.

Rey held back his criticisms of Shinn Asuka and his behavior (for Gil's sake), as usual. "I told you, Shinn; I found it in my pocket."

"But how did it get there?" Shinn persisted. He obviously thought that Rey had some kind of answer, and simply wasn't telling him.

"I don't know. I certainly didn't put it there." He waved his hand back and forth again, and then rotated his palm towards the floor. The ball ceased glowing, but continued hovering.

Rey rotated his palm face-up again as the Minerva's intercom sounded. "Rey Za Burrel and Shinn Asuka, please report to the bridge for a briefing on today's practice procedures," Meyrin's voice carried down the hallways.

The orb suddenly glowed brighter, and even though it did not seem to have apparent sides or even a definable edge, it appeared to be spinning. It rose higher in the air between the two pilots, whirring fast enough to create a strange hum in the air. The air in the hallway felt electric, and the fluorescent lights nearby dimmed.

_Rey Za Burrel and Shinn Asuka…._

The voice sounded neither male nor female, neither young nor old, and had no discernable accent or origin. Rey and Shinn locked eyes, Shinn's going wide in fear.

Suddenly the world went black.

"Shinn…" Rey shook the younger pilot, trying to prod him into wakefulness. "Shinn?"

"Unnng," the Impulse pilot replied, still half-unconscious. Suddenly his eyes snapped open, glinting like rubies in the near darkness. Shinn sat up just as quickly, nearly slamming into Rey, much to the golden boy's annoyance.

"Shinn, do you know what happened?" he asked quietly, not really expecting an answer from the boy. It was really for the sake of appearance and letting Shinn know that this was not any part of Rey's own plans. Rey stood and looked around as Shinn replied in the negative.

What little light that was inside the room seemed to be coming from three glowing orbs, the same as the one he had found in his pocket. They didn't illuminate the entire room, and from that alone, the Impulse pilot could tell the room was immense.

"Well Shinn, we need to find our way back. That is our prime objective at this point."

"Yeah," Shinn replied, standing up next to Rey before wandering to one of the floating marbles of light. He turned back, his face obscured in shadows. "But where are we? How are we supposed to find our way back?"

Rey noted with disapproval the hint of fright that had crept into his partner's voice. "Don't worry, Shinn. We'll figure it out—there's not point worrying this early in the game."

To prove his point, Rey walked to the orb in front of Shinn, placing his hand palm-up under it. Unlike his previous attempt, he didn't try to capture the sphere, and simply left his hand unmoving several inches below. He waited several breaths, then turned his palm downwards.

The little orb went dark. But the rest of the room flooded with light, white and piercing, and suddenly both pilots weren't alone. Hundreds and hundreds of… _creatures_ were surrounding them.

Rey wondered if he would ever see Gil again.

"I wonder if I'll ever see Gil again," Rey mumbled quietly to himself, and Shinn looked over with an expression of sheer disbelief.

"You're thinking about that _now?_ There are… there are _creatures_ in here," he shouted.

But Rey had a hand placed strategically at his brow now, and his eyes were squinted shut in thought. "Think, Shinn, and maybe we'll get somewhere. What would Gil do? What would…."

The creatures began to shift and inch closer.

Shinn gritted his teeth. "I don't know how we got stuck in here, we have no way to get a signal from the Minerva, and Athrun Zala is going to say I'm incompetent and immature if we get out of here alive. I have no idea what Gil would do, but I know what _I'm_ going to do."

Rey opened his eyes and looked up, hopeful even amid the mass of creatures that were wiggling closer. "What?"

Shinn took a deep breath. "Step on these things." He looked down at the long blobbly shape near his foot.

"Step…?"

_Squelch._

"Uggh!" Rey cried.

Shinn turned a delicate shade of green, not expecting the burst of brown pus. "My boots…."

"This is _not_ what Gil would do," Rey announced, indignant.

Shinn braced himself by fisting his hands and squaring his shoulders. "There has to be a way out, but we can't find it unless we… squelch… our way through these… these…."

"Giant slugs?" Rey asked.

"Gooey elongated cephalopods?" Shinn tried, scanning the area for an exit with a grimace.

"Not quite a cephalopod," Rey corrected, not helping in the slightest. "More like… long, slick… rods… of some sort," he offered.

Shinn stared at him in horror.

"What?" the blond asked, finally choosing to step on a creature of medium size and rotundity.

He placed his boot on it carefully, and pressed his heel into it with a cruel and cold precision. The… thing's… skin gave way immediately like a wet paper bag, spilling its gooey brown insides over the top of his white boots. He felt a shudder run through him and suppressed it.

"Nevermind," Shinn said quickly, looking the other direction.

Something like a shot of lighting rang through Rey's mind with a faint _shing_. Without conscious effort, his face turned towards the direction of the feeling. He had the sensation of near-recollection, of a memory subdued.

Rey squinted into the distance. "Come along, Shinn," he said decisively, grasping the younger pilot by the hand. "I think we should try this direction."

_Squelch!_

Rey pulled Shinn closer to him as they began trying to thread their way through and over the thick mass of creatures. But for every one they squelched, two more seemed to take its place.

"Where are they coming from?" Shinn asked, his grip on Rey's hand tightening as the slimy slug-like things squelched and brushed across their ankles.

Before Rey could respond, a loud hiss reverberated across the air above them. The pair wheeled around, throwing some of the smaller creatures aside with the movements of their boots, and turned to look behind them.

"Aaaaaaahhhhh!!" Shinn yelled, taking a step backwards. He slipped, squelching a creature and falling onto his back. Immediately the things swarmed over his body.

"Shinn!" Rey yelled, hauling on his friend's arm to try to keep him from being submerged even as he tried to figure out what to do about the source of the hissing.

What _would_ Gil do?!

Rey managed to help Shinn to his feet, letting the boy lean against him, smearing some of the sticky mass of goo along his side as his brown matted hair clung weakly to Rey's cheek. Before them towered a mass of the creatures, sliding over each other and wriggling along each other to form a many-legged behemoth. Tendrils of the creatures extended from its suspended center, slowly waving and making their ways towards the pilots.

"I think…" Shinn began as he pushed himself away from Rey and stood balanced on his own two feet. "I think that even Gil would run now."

Rey gave his partner a short nod, and the two fled, squelching the slick rod creatures as their boots hit the floor. They held hands tightly, so that when one slipped, the other was there to help him keep his balance. Behind them, the mass of creatures grew, swelling and following them with long tentacle-like limbs of increasing length.

"Rey!" Shinn panted as they ran away from the tentacle monster.

"What!" Rey shouted back hoarsely, hoping that Shinn was wasting both their breath on something important.

"If…" _Squelch!_ "If we don't make it out of this alive," Shinn continued hurriedly, his voice carrying above the noise of their boots on the slug-like entities. "There's something… something I want you to know!"

Rey glanced over at his companion, and truly hoped it was important. If Shinn didn't get his act together and just _run_, even at this speed, even though he was a Coordinator, he might not make it.

"Just _run_, Shinn!" Rey yelled, "You can tell me la—"

Rey stumbled, his breath catching in his throat as his chest suddenly felt fire. His muscles clenched and unclenched painfully, and he fell shaking into the pile of creatures, his grip on Shinn's hand weak and sliding free.

If only he weren't a clone. If only he had a real life to live.

"REY!!"

The young Coordinator's hands heaved on Rey's sides and lifted him clear of the slippery mass of creatures, pulling him vertical so he abruptly came face-to-face with Shinn. Shinn moved his hands to Rey's shoulders.

"I LOVE YOU!" Shinn yelled defiantly. He panted in the sudden quiet while Rey's ears rang and his head spun and his breath wouldn't come, then steeled himself. "Now let's get out of here."

He gripped Rey's hand firmly, and dragged him, half-stumbling away. Rey almost laughed. There was no way they would both make it out of this alive, and rather than have one of them go on alone, they would go down together.

This was what _Shinn_ would do.

He felt his breath come a little easier, and his legs started pumping faster so he could keep up with the other pilot. Rey was quite convinced he was going to die, but he had always known he was going to die.

At least it would be with someone he cared about.

And suddenly, something was whizzing along in the air beside them, glowing brightly. It seemed to be a tiny orb, spinning, and creating an electric charge in the air.

Rey felt a slimy tentacle wrap around his throat, and he stumbled into Shinn, the two of them falling into a wet tangle of creatures as the world went black.

"Aaaaaaahhhh!" Shinn yelled, waving his arms and legs around in a tangle of… Rey's mind whirred as he tried to place the sensation… sheets? He opened his eyes.

Blankets? He was in a darkened room. It was his room on the Minerva, the one he shared with Shinn.

"Rey! What in ZAFT's name are you doing?!" the younger pilot exploded, writhing underneath Rey. "I was just… uh, walking by your bed, and you just… tackled me!" Rey looked down at his roommate skeptically. "Seriously!" Shinn answered through a spreading blush. "It sounded like you were having one of your attacks, and so… I, uh, was just leaning over you…to check on you."

Rey narrowed his eyes. "Then you didn't say anything?"

Shinn looked suddenly guilty. "I… uh, only called your name… and stuff." He wriggled, attempting to unseat the blond above him. "Could you get off me?!" Rey saw right through Shinn's attempt to change the subject.

"You didn't happen to say, 'Rey, I love you'?" Rey said, making the question sound more like an accusation as his blue eyes pinned the other boy to the floor much more effectively than his body weight.

Shinn gave of the air of a trapped animal, and he shook his head violently.

"I see," Rey said, leaning down towards the slightly parted lips of the ensared teen. He breathed into Shinn's ear. "Liar."

Smirking to himself, Rey stood, collected his blankets, and went back to sleep.

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_Thanks for reading, and please review!_


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